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23 March 2010

The Corner on Health Care

National Review's The Corner blog is customarily screechy and wrong. I suspect it's in their guiding principles - nothing else explains the acquisition of Jonah "Everyone I dislike is like Hitler" Goldberg. But since they went into panic mode over the health care reform bill, it's just been delicious gravy on top of that glorious victory.

Like most conservatives, they were trumpeting their win a few weeks ago. But now socialists will abort twelve babies every hour.

If Barack Obama does nothing else in his term in office, this will make him one of the most consequential presidents in history. It's a huge transformative event in Americans' view of themselves and of the role of government. You can say, oh, well, the polls show most people opposed to it, but, if that mattered, the Dems wouldn't be doing what they're doing. Their bet is that it can't be undone, and that over time, as I've been saying for years now, governmentalized health care not only changes the relationship of the citizen to the state but the very character of the people. As I wrote in NR recently, there's plenty of evidence to support that from Britain, Canada, and elsewhere.

More prosaically, it's also unaffordable. That's why one of the first things that middle-rank powers abandon once they go down this road is a global military capability. If you take the view that the U.S. is an imperialist aggressor, congratulations: You can cease worrying. But, if you think that America has been the ultimate guarantor of the post-war global order, it's less cheery. Five years from now, just as in Canada and Europe two generations ago, we'll be getting used to announcements of defense cuts to prop up the unsustainable costs of big government at home. And, as the superpower retrenches, America's enemies will be quick to scent opportunity.

Longer wait times, fewer doctors, more bureaucracy, massive IRS expansion, explosive debt, the end of the Pax Americana, and global Armageddon. Must try to look on the bright side . . .

That's right. He used the term "Pax Americana" while we are engaged in two wars, one of which is approaching a decade in length. And he has also predicted, flat-out, global Armageddon.

I think I will be collecting quotes this week, to share with my grandchildren someday. Or maybe - thanks to recent legislation - with my great-grandchildren.